Entertainment on the Roads

While driving on the road, there is a lot of entertainment in the name of shops.

At one corner, our dear Lord Pandhari has become a paan merchant. In another lane, He has become a dry-cleaner. Our revered saint Sai Baba has to play multiple roles in the span of a few kilometers. He is an expert hairdresser, an excellent tailor, and can make amazing kulfi. He is an efficient dabbewala, and a world-class istriwalla. Sri Sai Baba owns a fleet of buses, trucks, and lorries. He can ferry you around in vans or small cars.

Now-a-days, hospitals have even mountain ranges as their namesake. We have the Sahyadri Hospital here, and we also have the Himalaya Healthcare. Unfortunately, the height of the hospitals is not proportional to the height of the mountain ranges.

The Woodlands restaurant is famous for its seafood. It is perhaps the only wood in the world where sea food is abundantly available - for a price, of course.

The Goddess Lakshmi is sometimes forced to supervise hotel management, and the Goddess Saraswati is a very efficient tea-stall manager. Jejuricha Khanderaya makes excellent sweets, and the Lord Krishna provides nutritious and sumptuous breakfast. On the other hand, Krishna's Basuri can conjure up excellent south-Indian food.

You can get good Chinese food in fountain spots, but there will be no fountains around. You can find two chat corners in a single lane that has no corners to speak of.

As I said, driving on the roads can be very entertaining. Shops keep changing, malls keep coming up, roads keep changing directions, and life still goes on.

The Magic of Smells

There is magic in living, and our sense of smell renders this magic possible. Smell can make us happy, smell can make us sad.

I was driving to work the other day. The day had started on a stressful note. I woke up late, had a hell of a time in getting my son ready for school, had no time for breakfast, and got out of the house at a time that was just on this side of respectability. I was tired before starting the day. I was driving to work in the worst possible frame of mind. And I suddenly got a whiff of freshly-made cake. I was instantly transferred to a lazy day in my childhood. I remembered the invaluable time I had when mom had sent me to buy some eggs on a wonderful summer day. My mood just changed; I was suddenly feeling as light as the day of my ancient past.

For me, smells have the power to change my mood. They can make me ride on a huge crest, or sometimes throw me at the bottom of a well. They make me hopeful for my future and nostalgic about my past.

The smell of fallen leaves always reminds me of some of the laziest and happiest days of my childhood. The smell of a wet dog or a horse takes me back to the days that I spent in my mom's office, scampering among the gardens. The smell of a tamarind tree takes me back to my first school. The smell of wooden benches or new notebooks always takes me back to the schooldays.

I feel jittery when I get a whiff of a Camlin eraser - you see, I am still scared of some of my teachers. The smell of mothballs has never failed to make me sad. For some strange reason, this smell reminds me of my dear ones who have now passed away. The smell of books - whether old or new - transfers me to some other plane. I feel happy, nostalgic, and hopeful - all at the same time. My love for books is reinforced. My zest for life is redoubled. (There was a time when life was equivalent to reading books.)

Smells cast a magical spell on all of us. You can smell from afar that there is a new baby in a house. You can understand how welcoming a home is, just from the smell of it.

For me, smells even herald the seasons. I can smell rain in the air a month before the monsoons. Summer has its own lazy smell. The smell of autumn mingles with the smell of the monsoons. It refreshes me and makes me nostalgic at once. Winter steals in with a cozy smell of blankets.

I remember a time when I could not smell the season. I landed in the US for the first time in winter. Winter in my native city in India is vastly different from that in the US. Here there are subtle smells of foliage and winter trees. There is a smell of warm stoves and hot food. In the US, it was as if nature was taking a complete break from life. No smell of any life, not even any whiffs. I felt completely lost. I could not understand the complete absence of smells all around. I started coming back to life at the onset of spring. I could smell the leaves again; I started getting comfortable again.

Smells give colour to my life. They make my life beautiful. my life gets remarkably dull when I get a heavy cold.